Linden Lab announced an $11million capital raise led by Globespan Capital with participation from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and current investors. Really exciting to see Second Life get this vote of confidence – I didn’t know about it in advance but expect my “update to shareholders” letter to arrive shortly.

Linden has now raised enough money ($8m in Fall 2004, earlier single digit millions from angels) that a small buyout would be disappointing. Consistent with Philip Rosedale’s vision, he isn’t in this to build some cool stuff and flip to a game co or community portal. This always gave me a bit of concern given that I was just getting started in my career and would have been happy with a smaller but successful liquidity event.

Congrats to Philip, Cory and the rest of the team!

“I’ve received some alerts on your account,” was the message from the service rep at the financial institution where i keep some of my investments. “Call me back.”

I did not know this man but I followed his instructions, leaving a very nice message that it this was a marketing pitch, he needn’t get back in touch with me. But he did.

“Not marketing. I’m not trying to sell you something. I’m here to help. We’ve got ways for you to earn a greater return on your investments.”

“Well, don’t you think ‘alert’ is the wrong way to offer help? You’re intentionally trying to cause me to worry about the security of my account.”

“I can take you off our watch list. You won’t receive any help from us. I won’t be watching your account any more.”

With that I was freed from their manipulative outreach. But they lost some of my trust. And for this reason it’s likely they’re going to see more money of mine flowing out in coming years than flowing in.

I don’t know who Eric Rice is but he really likes Second Life and that’s good enough for me.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

It’s not just the under-20 set that is taking advantage of online video. Consumers and businesses are also producing commercials, educational and how-to videos, said Hunter Walk, product manager for Google Video, which, besides selling episodes of popular television shows, lets users search for and upload clips. An RV salesman made a video tour of the motor homes he was selling; a handyman demonstrated how to grout a tub; locals offered a walking tour of their hometown.

I’ve done lots of other Google Press but this is my first interview for Video stuff.

Fun article in Saturday’s NYTimes re: the debut of Trader Joe’s in Manhattan (Union Square). In b-school, we had a visit from the Trader Joe’s CEO who talked with great love about their mission, vision and values. He commented that working for a private company (TJ’s is owned by German billionaires) afforded them some luxury to focus on building a great company with long-term relationships.

So did moving into NYC cause them to sell out on this promise? Absolutely not. From the article:

“We were able to work out a deal with N.Y.U. that made sense for them and made sense for us,” Mr. Rauch said. “It’s a deal that allows us to have the same prices here that we have everywhere else on the East Coast. We haven’t raised our prices a nickel for Manhattan.” Trader Joe’s plans other stores soon in the city, if it can find equally agreeable landlords.

Bravo for NYU and Trader Joe’s.

Resolution with the DoJ. Russell summarizes quite nicely .

Let’s see – this month Philip Rosedale (Founder Linden Lab) has spoken at google, gotten love from Yahoo, and wowed Microsoft. I’m waiting for the Barry Diller and Meg Whitman stories next.

So with apologies that the following link is very stripper-centric, my friend Hue just produced a video for Mobb Deep and 50 Cent. As you’ll see, its appeal is, um, targeted at a specific demographic but when you’re a rising star filmmaker, you don’t pass up opportunities like this.

“Scientists discover swimming ants.” I envision a future where the ants and apes battle tirelessly with the winner asserting mastery over the human race. Or at least that’s what the Absinthe tells me.

Philip Rosedale told me about Silver Bells & Golden Spurs when he visited Google last week. Teased that I’d need to wait a week to see it. Well, now it’s out and premiering at SXSW.

Bells & Spurs is an example of machinima, which is broadly defined as making movies using video game environments or game engines.